


Don't Look, Honey

by Tiryn



Series: Examining Characters [1]
Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Father/Daughter Relationship, Get your tissue box ready, Lee would also make the best dad don't at me, No Time Left episode, Sadness, Two Shot, You're going to need it, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies, character exploration, hard decisions, inspired by when Lee looks in the bowling ball bag, just so emotional, sadness galore, this scene always makes me cry, yeah you know the one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-15
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2020-06-28 16:29:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19816114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tiryn/pseuds/Tiryn
Summary: The zombie apocalypse was never a kind event, never shown to be one. It ravaged and destroyed lives, leaving behind the shadows of what society once was. In a world that was just starting to realize the long haul, one man did everything in his power to protect and cherish one little girl. Despite the hardships and the past and the sorrow, he did it, he did it for her and the sins he bore.And now...Now he reached the end of the road.He has to tell her one more thing.





	1. The Situation

He didn't know the man, had never seen him in his life. Though that might not have been true - Lee Everett walked by millions of people in his lifetime, taught just as many in Georgia. There was a possibility that Lee had seen this crazy man waving around a gun. Lee wanted to scream, or stab him, but he put down the radio and cleaver (as asked) and sat down, his arm giving the weird tingly feeling that meant it was close to being completely numb. Not like there was much of an arm anymore.

"Do you know who I am?" The man's voice was low, deep and gravely. He looked about as dangerous as Lee usually did, but the apocalypse changed everyone.

"No, never seen you before." _I would have been happy to never know of your existence._ Lee glanced down at the bag between the two of them, wondering if he had more weapons in them, then glancing over to where sweet little Clementine was locked up. _You will pay._ "I don't know anything about you."

The man scoffed. "You wouldn't. People like you don't." Lee... was confused. What the hell was going on here? The man then smiled. "Now you're thinking, 'who would have it out for me?' Well..." Lee could honestly list off at least five separate people that would probably enjoy watching him die. "A few weeks back, there might have been a station wagon, out in the forest?" The man's smile dropped. "It was full of all sorts of food, water, things you need to survive."

Lee remembered that station wagon, a bright blue beacon of darkness. They were all starving, thirsty, just escaping a harrowing situation at a cannibalistic farm. He remembered saying that it wasn't right taking the supplies, how the car was just parked here and how the owners could come back any minute and they didn't need that on their hands. Clementine was the only one who stood by him. He had felt guilty, knowing that it would be a while before they would get to eat, but Lee had morals.

Small though they are.

They sat in silence as the man stared at Lee's dawning expression. "Yeah, I'm not some cannibal, Lee, or a murderer out in the woods. I'm not a v..." The man seemed to stumble over the word. "Villain." His face seemed blank, but it was his eyes that burned bright with fury, surrounded by age lines made from exhaustion and grief. "I'm just a dad - I coach little league."

"I didn't take from you."

The stranger's scowl was thunderous. "Your _people_ didn't?"

"I didn't agree with it." Lee was short with the man - he hoped that talking to him would de-escalate the situation enough that both he and Clementine would get out alive. Lee didn't much care for the stranger.

The stranger leaned back in his chair, one finger still on the trigger of the gun. "That's what little Clementine said. Why didn't you?"

Lee's eyebrows furrowed, wondering where the hell this was going. "It wasn't right. It wasn't ours."

"That's real good of you." Now Lee wasn't sure if that was meant to come across as sarcastically as it did, but Lee definitely did not appreciate it.

"Look, what do you want me to say? I'm sorry, I wish I could have changed things?"

The man chuckled, his eyes staring at the bowling bag fondly. "I don't want you to say anything. I want you to listen."

Lee didn't have time for this.

His eyes strayed to the gun.

Lee didn't have a choice in this.

"I want you to know what happened." Lord, Lee wished there was another, faster way out of this situation. Still, he had an obligation to sit here and listen to this man's woe. Everyone else had told him of their troubles - what was one more on his tired shoulders? "Have you ever... hurt somebody you care about?"

Lee looked down, regret swallowing him up from the inside. There was his ex-wife, who hurt him but look at what he had done to her in turn. He hoped that she was safe, wherever she was. There was Kenny, God rest his soul. He lost Duck, then Katjaa, all because Lee couldn't help protect them, couldn't do what was right even when it counted. Then there was Clementine, a little eight-year-old girl dealing with this world and the shit it has already thrown at her. "Yes," Lee whispered. "Of course I have."

"Who?" It was angry, as if the stranger was offended that Lee had dared to answer honestly.

"Clementine." The answer was near automatic - while he could forgive himself for the everyone else he has harmed, there was no telling about what would happen with Clem. "The girl misses her parents, and I am not them. I wish I could..." There were a lot of things that Lee wanted to do for Clementine. He wished he could take away her pain, he wished that her parents were actually here to comfort her, he _wished_ and _wished_ and _wished_.

The man shook his head, eyes glazing over as if he was speaking to someone else far, far away. "I hurt her... I hurt her so bad." Lee felt the anger nearly explode - this man dared to lay hands on Clementine?! "My son, Adam, went missing. I took him out hunting, figuring he needed to learn at some point. My wife said he was too young." He sighed. "I didn't listen.

"When I came back without him... The look on her face nearly destroyed me. It said that I was a _monster_." The look the stranger leveled Lee was... Well, a picture spoke a thousand words, and his face was definitely a picture. "We went looking for him, and we never found him. I _hurt_ her." His eyes became clear, filling with rage once more. "Then we came back... and all of our stuff was gone."

His voice growled with anger. "Your people, Lee - that asshole in the ball cap, his stupid fucking wife." The anger simmered down faster than it began. "I could have earned her trust back if they hadn't made our situation so desperate."

"I'm sorry..." Lee whispered, feeling guilty. It was a survivalist's world though, and he knew that they would have all died without those supplies. It was a desperate, _stupid_ move, and one that Lee didn't regret all that much. But still... "I'm sorry."

Another sigh. "The hungrier we got, the more she blamed me. It came to a point where she took our daughter Elizabeth and left." _Come on, Lee, think! You can't just sit here!_ Lee looked behind the stranger once more, trying to think of a way to get Clementine out of the closet she was trapped in. "They didn't get far... I..." The stranger looked hollow, desperate as he sought out Lee's eyes. "I found them a day later... In the road."

_Shit, man._

"Do I look like a monster to you?"

Lee straightened up. "We all do."

"Some more than others..." There was a look then, that passed over the stranger's face. His anger was back. "I'm not like you," he started with gesturing his gun. "You walked a little girl into a dairy farm and let them get their sick hands on her, you _lied_ to her!"

"It's more complicated than that..."

"You brought her into the most dangerous place into this city to die!"

"I couldn't leave her alone!" There was no doubt in Lee's mind that he would have done the same thing again - he couldn't risk a walker or a psychopath getting his hands on Clementine. And yet...

"SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER OFF!!" The stranger took in a deep breath, settling back into the seat as Lee looking at him suspiciously.

"How did you know all this?"

The stranger smirked, reaching into his pocket to set a familiar item on the table between them. A radio - somehow, this man got his hands on the radio and had been communicating with Clementine. Lee could only stare at it with wide eyes. "You're a monster," the stranger hissed at him, smile nearly demonic. "You're a murderer and a thief, and I'm gonna hurt you so bad."

Lee clenched his jaw. "Just give me Clementine back."

The stranger shrugged. "I'd rather kill her myself." His next words overrode the growl that Lee sent his way, anger nearly turning his vision red. "That's what will happen to her if she goes with you. You know... After I found Clementine on my radio, I wasn't mad at you. I was coming after the others for revenge." That was something that Lee wouldn't have allowed. "But the more I learned about the things you did and the danger she was in... our plans changed."

Lee almost expected someone else to walk through the conjoining door. "Lee, I need you to listen to me." The stranger was leaning forward, thumb rubbing the handle of the gun. "I need you to hear this - I can take care of her. We can have a family!" He leaned back, slightly smug. "I bet you don't even know how old she is."

"She's eight." That was a one-eighty. What was the man trying to prove?

"Wrong! She's nine."

Lee's eyebrows furrowed. He didn't even know, and that made him feel even more guilt than before.

"Her birthday was six days ago." The stranger was even more smug, if that was possible. "I know how to be a dad, you know." That stung more than Lee wanted to admit. "She wouldn't be exposed to what she has been to you."

Lee's one hand clenched on the armchair. "You're wrong. She is not going with you. You're crazy."

"Going with you is crazy!" Lee noted that the man didn't even fight the crazy accusation. Wasn't that just oh-so-nice of him?

Lee decided that if the man was crazy, he might as well put all his chips in too. "My arm?" He waved the stump around, slightly enjoying the look of disgust the man gave the bloody limb. "I'm bitten." Lee kept his voice low."

The surprise on the man's face was glorious. "What."

"I got bit," the words were slow and enunciated. "I got bit, and I'm going to make sure you're going to end up the same way."

"Wait, that's not - "

"Make sure you shoot me in the head." There was a distant voice in the back of Lee's head that was telling that _maybe_ he shouldn't get this much sadistic enjoyment from essentially telling a man that he was going to end up like a walker, but the voice was quiet, and so Lee didn't pay it any attention. Besides that, Lee was going to exact his revenge, and if that happened to come around to making sure this man became a walker... Well, something had to work.

The stranger shook his head, knuckles popping as his grip tightened on the gun. "No, I'll be with her." He relaxed suddenly, leaning forward with a smile that was much too calm for the world they lived in today. "And you'll be rotting in the streets." Before Lee could say anything further, the man started _cooing_ at the bag sitting between the two of them. "Honey, I think this is all going to work out."

"What the hell are you - " Lee stopped, eyes widening as he watched the closet door be opened quietly, the rope falling away as it was cut from the doorknob. The stranger continued to speak to the bag, not paying attention to the fact that Clementine had escaped. She stood there behind the chair, shoulders hunched in and shaking, her eyes wide with tears as they connected with Lee's. She then glanced at the man then over at the table.

There was an array of items there, any and all useful on getting out of here.

Lee looked at the bottle, giving a slight nod of his head. "Just about," Lee said, noticing that he had glanced at him, the smile on his face still slightly loopy. Lee didn't know what the man was doing, just talking to the bag, but he would rather that his attention was on him and not on Clementine.

"I miss you so much, Tess, you and your smile. You're going to like Clementine a lot, honey. She's not Lizzy, but she's sweet." The man lifted his head, just as Clementine lifted the bottle in her hands. "She wouldn't hurt a fly." The glass came down with a heavy thunk, sadly not knocking out the stranger, but it gave Lee the opening he needed to jump forward and attack.

They struggled, though Lee was at a disadvantage with only one arm to help him. Lee pushed him away, the gun getting knocked away in the mess (thankfully). It didn't stop the two of them throwing punches, Lee eventually standing up to face the stranger one-on-one. Lee made sure to stand in between him and Clementine.

He wouldn't let her get hurt, not while he was there to save her.

"Come on, fight like a man!" Lee only scowled at him, throwing another punch to throw him off, the action sending the stranger back into the closet door and breaking them. Lee jumped forward, using the momentum to push forward and choke him out. He scrabbled, his nails digging and ripping into Lee's skin as he pushed forward, a scowl ripping across his face.

A gasp distracted Lee, and he glanced over to see Clementine, looking more and more scared the longer this went on. _No, not in front of her._

The stranger did not have that same compassion for Clementine.

Knocking aside Lee's arm, he jumped forward with a punch, Lee's jaw aching as he struggled to fight back. "Die, you son of a bitch!" He growled, both hands pressing down hard on Lee's throat. Lee's vision started to tunnel, one hand scrabbling to where he last saw the gun, quickly losing oxygen and life as the stranger continued to choke and choke and choke and -

BANG

The stranger slumped to the side. Lee took a deep breath, coming out from underneath the dead body, thankful that he was able to live just a little bit longer. With wide eyes, he watched Clementine watch him, the gun clenched in her trembling hands. She was gasping, heaving breath after breath as her first kill was trying to compute in her little young mind. Lee pushed the dead body off of him, panting himself.

Once before, it would not have taken so much effort to fight off one man, to push him around as if he was nothing.

This day was not like the days of old.

Clementine looked back at Lee, eyes wide and wild. "I... I..."

"Sh, sh, sh." Lee took the gun from Clementine, setting aside to hover his hand over her, checking for any injuries. "It's gonna be okay, honey, it's gonna be okay."

"Your arm..." Lee looked down at his bandaged stump, twisting in a moment of regret before looking back at Clementine. Her breathing calmed, and Lee didn't know how to feel about the fact that Clementine seeing him injured was calming her down in some way. "It's gone. Why?" Her tears glistened down her cheeks, creating clean tracks. "That's... That's so scary."

This wasn't really the time to tell Clementine that Lee had been bit. "I'll be fine, I'll tell you all about it when we get out of here."

"You don't smell good..." Lee loved Clementine. God, he missed her.

He couldn't help but smile. "I know honey." He frowned once more. It was good that he couldn't find any injuries, but... "Did he hurt you?"

Clem quickly shook her head. "No not really. I'm sorry Lee."

"It's okay, Clem, there's nothing to be sorry for." _Not now, not ever will you need to apologize to me, sweetheart._

Lee looked up and over to the door, a hard frown etched into his face. "We need to get you out of here safely and then we need to have a talk, okay?" Clementine agreed with him. Lee was worried she was still in shock, the poor child. "Everything's okay now. We will figure out how to get out of Savannah as soon as possible."

While she nodded, Clem's eyes traveled to the corpse behind him. She was shivering again, hands clenched tightly in her dress in a desperate attempt to stop it.

Lee picked up the pistol once more. "You pulled the trigger."

"...Yeah..."

"I wish..." _There were so many things that I wish I could do for you, like give you your parents, give you a proper birthday, protect you properly, but..._ "I wish you never had to learn that." Lee knew that regret was going to carry with him into his grave, which he knew was coming up very quickly if they didn't move.

"Me too." There was a tone of quiet resignation from the nine-year-old, one who had seen too much in her short span of life. _She's becoming wise_ , Lee thought, groaning as he stood up from bending onto his knees. He had to hide his stumble quickly, his headache growing rapidly. _She shouldn't have to deal with this world_.

As they walked to the door, Lee heard a quiet shuffle. He looked down at the bowling ball bag, the one the stranger had damn well cooed to. He leaned forward, and nearly shouted when white eyes stared back at him. By some miracle, the head was still shuffling around, hair wild and skin rapidly decaying. Lee could only assume that this was the stranger's late wife. The man was fucking insane. "Don't look in there," he warned.

"No," Clem replied, hands still clenched in her dress. "I know."

Lee wished he had the chance to kill the son-of-a-bitch himself right then and there.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lee told her all that he could.
> 
> Clementine does all that she can.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quite a bit of the dialogue has been changed, but I did my best in keeping with the tone and situation that the game provided for us. Enjoy!

The Walkers moaned and growled around them, but they never turned to them, their eyes white and unseeing, craving their next meal, their next piece of fresh human. It was unnerving, seeing the way they shambled on the concrete, somehow matching the decrepit environment that humanity was rapidly calling home.

No, Lee thought to himself, forcing his eyes to stay open against the pain and weakness he could feel pulling at each of his muscles, this can never be home now. He glanced down, his sight wavering, but Clementine still walked slowly next to him, her ball cap not as covered with blood as the rest of her was.

Satisfied, Lee faced forward, lightly bumping shoulders with walkers who only half-heartedly growled at him before walking forward once more. Honestly, he didn’t know what he would be able to do once they got out of the city – there was only so much that Lee could do for Clem until he was…

Well, that was a thought process that he really didn’t want to go down.

He glanced down once more, and then Clem was gone. Panicking, Lee turned back, his swaying becoming more prominent. She was staring over to the side, frozen with tears racing down her face. He glanced over, seeing a man and woman standing there, the woman having a familiar crown of curly hair on her head.

“Clem, honey, don’t - “

Darkness.

( _Clem cried the entire time, trying to choke out her tears as she softly whispered Lee’s name, praying that he would wake up and oh god, why did this have to happen, Lee, please wake up, Lee, wake up because I’m dragging you to an open garage and Clem is still trying not to cry blaming herself for the entire situation and seeing the color that Lee was turning into and fervently denying what was going to happen to him, Lee, wake up, please, wake up, I’m just a little girl, I can’t do this alone, Lee -)_

“Lee, wake up!” Lee groaned into consciousness, seeing Clementine’s panicked face hovering over him. “Lee, please don’t be dead...”

“Clem...”

She continued sobbing, “I was so scared… I – I thought you left me...” Lee pulled her close, patting her shoulders in empathy. Her voice was so quiet when she said, “I saw my parents.”

“Oh, sweet pea...” Lee hugged her closer to himself, trying to will away the sadness and anger the little girl was exuding. _It’s a good thing she saw them – at least now she won’t have to wonder about it for the rest of her life._

“They’re dead, they really are...” She sucked in a breath, as if confirming it, trying to center herself in the situation they were placed in. Clem helped Lee sit up, letting him get a look at their situation. It seemed like Clem dragged him into a jewelry store, a few doors visible. One obviously led outside, with the blinds drawn down and the moans of the undead seemingly echoing inside Lee’s head.

Lee was glad that there was nobody in the store, otherwise the both of them would become dead.

“Okay, we need to go out.” He dragged himself up the wall, furrowing his brows, trying to concentrate. The pain was growing now, he could tell. “O-open the door, Clementine.”

The young girl shook her head, tightening the hold on her dress. “I can’t.”

Lee’s brows furrowed, anger surging hotly inside him. “Clementine…” She shook her head once more, and Lee swallowed the rage climbing up through his throat and threatening to swallow him whole. “Okay,” he was muttering more to himself than Clem. “Okay.” He knelt down before her, making sure to keep eye contact as he did so.

He didn’t expect that action to be so difficult, but here they are.

“Clementine, honey, there’s something I need to tell you.” Lee gestured to his arm, continuing with, “I cut off my arm.”

She furrowed her brows. “Why?” ( _Clementine knew why, though,_ _cause people didn’t try to cut off their own limbs just for fun, but she didn’t want to hear it, but she didn’t want to truly know, but but but but)_

“I got bitten, Clem, and it is unsafe for us to be stuck in here together.” Lee didn’t need to elaborate exactly _why_ , mostly because he didn’t want to even think about what would happen if he did and that would probably be enough to take out his currently very weak heart. “Do you understand?”

“Yes.” Her face was small, scared, but she understood. In that moment, she aged more, and Lee hated himself for each second she had to age more than she needed to. “I don’t like it.”

“I know honey.” She took a deep breath in, trying to stifle a sob. “I’m sorry, we’ll have to work together to get you out safely, okay?”

“It’s gonna be like Larry, isn’t it?”

Lee didn’t really have a good answer to that – that entire farm situation was harrowing and he still chastised himself for every wrong move, for every life he could have saved, and for putting Clementine in that much danger. “I won’t let it be like Larry okay?”

Lies like this… they had never felt so heavy on his shoulders.

They both moved to the only other door they could see, where moans weren’t constantly reverberating through the door. It was silent as they pulled the door open, a bright exit sign glaring at them… guarded by a Walker attached to his chair and moaning quietly.

“Come on, I might be a little slow, but we have to get you out of here.” They moved quietly, but Lee stumbled, vision fading in and out for a split second, a quick surge of _something_ trying to eat away at his mind. Clem was quick to hoist an arm on her shoulders, small as she was. Still, she seemed steady as she walked the both of them to a wall so Lee could sit.

He hadn’t realized he was shaking until he sat down.

“I’m sorry,” Clementine says, and Lee can see tears crossing her face once more. A delirious thought of his wife crossed his mind for some reason. _Focus_ , he tells himself. “I thought I was helping by bringing you in here.”

Lee’s lung weren’t cooperating, they weren’t giving him the air that he needed. “I know baby, you did what you thought was right. Just know that you will always need a way out – don’t let yourself get trapped. Never let yourself get trapped.”

Trapped always equaled death – if you couldn’t find a way out or even make a way out, that was the end for you. That was the end of your life.

There was a radiator next to him. He thought, for a moment, that he could feel the warmth reaching out to him, caressing him to sleep, to rest his eyes for just a moment.

With that, Lee knew he wouldn’t be able to go much further. This… was the end for Lee.

“Lee, come on, get up!” Clem had her shoulders hunched in, taking up smaller space than normal. She hadn’t ever looked so small before… “The door’s right there, you can do it!”

His muscles strained, limbs moving through molasses to lift him, missing arm and all, only to collapse back down to the floor.

“I can’t… I can’t move.” He shook his head at Clem, seeing her eyes spill over, a waterfall of grief yet to be unleashed completely. “You don’t have much time – you have to get out of here fast.”

( _It clawed up her throat, making her tongue heavy and head throb. This, this was all wrong, this wasn’t supposed to happen! Her hands shook as she followed his instructions, his breathing deep and sounding stuffed. Clem didn’t want to know why his breathing sounded different, why it kept slowing down. Each time he stopped breathing, she would hold her own breath, praying and praying to whatever and whoever could hear her until Lee would take another deep breath. She kept glancing back at him, but it scared her to see the transition from human to walker, so Clem’s eyes never stayed there long._

_Her eyes… also strayed to the gun_ _she could see through the window_ _.)_

“You’re smarter than him,” Lee said, a hammer pounding away at a growing migraine. “You’re smarter than all of them, honey.” She crept forward, feet sliding through the broken glass. “Don’t be scared of the walker, you’ll be fine.” Lee suddenly wished he could have imparted every single piece of wisdom he had learned over the years to Clementine. He wished he could have taught her to be safer, to be able to wiggle her way out of any situation, to place her trust in only those who had earned it.

He wished.

He wished.

And _he wished_.

Yet…

“Use the chair to reach in… unlock the door.” He could still see her, and he could see the way his vision wavered at the edge, almost fading in and out. Clear as a bell, the chair scrapped against the floor, lock clicking open… The walker started growling louder, but there was something holding him back. Lee was glad that it couldn’t touch Clementine.

She stopped and looked back at him, fear written clearly across her face. “He’s trapped.”

“Good… He’s probably got keys to that door…” Lee struggled to see what else the walker had on him. Blue uniform, or at least it used to be blue, under all that grime and blood and dust. There definitely were keys attached to his belt, along with a belt and a gun. “You’re going to need both the keys and the gun.” Lee could clearly tell that it was getting harder for him to speak clearly, his words slurring as if he was drinking heavily.

That was a thought. He hadn’t had a heavy drink in years, hadn’t really drank at all really. Still, he remembered drinking with his buddies on holidays when the stress was getting too much with grading papers and trying to catch students up, he could remember the way his tongue died in his throat, but still kept going…

Lee missed the Before.

A glint of steel caught Lee’s eyes, a pair of handcuffs on the floor. “You’re gonna need those. Get the handcuffs.” Lee knew Clem replied, he didn’t hear, but all that mattered was that she followed his words. “Handcuff me to this,” Lee gestured to the radiator next to him, glad to notice that it was attached to the wall. “No matter what happens, you’ll be safe then.”

It was logical, Lee thought to himself. The walker was already trapped, and he was going to turn soon. Lee refused to even entertain the thought of what would happen afterwards and Clementine was still around. Clem, though unwilling, attached Lee to the radiator, the both of them making sure that it was on tight. “Good,” Lee’s smile was smile, but it definitely bolstered her confidence. “Now you only have to deal with him – he’s trapped, so just be careful when you get close to him, okay?”

“Okay…” Clementine inched closer to the trapped walker, not looking back. She had trained herself not to ever turn her back to walkers, for it could end in tragedy. The young girl told herself that Lee wasn’t a walker ( _not yet, not yet)_ so it was safe to turn her back to him.

He never hurt her before.

“What should I get first?”

A pause behind her almost made her turn, in fear that Lee wasn’t breathing anymore, but then, “the keys, in case you have to make a run for it.”

He didn’t tell her that having a way out saved your life more often than having a weapon. If you can run, you can live, survive, another day.

Clementine nodded, walking forward and reaching for the keys, but the walker growled and yanked forward, freeing himself from whatever trapped. Lee, on instinct, tried to reach froward to help, but he was stuck to the radiator, and he still felt relatively weak, useless and sitting next to the ground. She ran, but the walker grabbed her leg, making her scream in fear.

“CLEM! NO!” She kicked at walker, forcing it to let go of her, and then she stared to crawl away, towards a display sitting in the room. “You have to kill it!” Grunting, Clem knocked over the stand, trapping the walker.

Lee was unlucky enough to be close. A sharp pain echoed in his head, high pitched ringing nearly taking over everything else happening in the room. He forced his eyes open, seeing the blurry vision of a bat near him. He could use it, he could protect Clem with it!

His fingertips could just barely touch the wood of the bat, but it was out of his reach. Lee could still hear the walker struggling underneath the stand. He couldn’t hear Clem.

“CLEM!” Lee turned his body, kicking at the bat until he could faintly see Clementine pick it up. Without a second to spare, she swung the bat over her head and brought it down onto the walker’s head. It took a few more swings, but the undead became more dead, nothing twitching or signaling that he was still going. Clem took a few deep breaths, throwing the bat aside with shaky hands.

She picked up the keys and the gun, the weight heavy and strange in her hands, though not as strange as it would have been in the Before.

Lee smiled. “Good job, Clem, you can take care of yourself, you’re strong, see?”

“Not, not all the time.” Clem was shaking. “I’m little.”

He shook his head. “Doesn’ mean nothin’. You’re going to see bad stuff, but it’s going to be okay.” Lee thought of all that she already saw, like Kenny bashing in Larry’s head, hoards of the undead growling and chasing after them, people stealing cars and food just to survive… She was going to see more, and he wasn’t going to be there to protect her from it.

“My parents…” it was almost like she was adding onto that list in Lee’s head.

“I can’t imagine, sweet pea.” He knew that something like that would haunt her for a long time, as everything would be. If everything ever returned to normal, or became okay, he prayed that Clementine would heal from all this.

“And now… you? PLEASE, please, don’t be one of them. Don’t become a walker.” It was inevitable… these things happened, and with the way everything was going… Lee didn’t really have a choice.

“There’s only thing you can do… You know that.”

He didn’t respond to her further stuttering and pleas – he would never push that choice for her, for this was something she would also have to learn. Clem would need to know whether or not she could take a life when it was a living, breathing, actual human being.

Not a walker.

Lee struggled to sit back up, panting at the effort it took him just to get there. “Find… Find Omid and Christa. They’re looking for us right now – stay on high ground and don’t get caught.” He hoped the two found Clem – he thought they could be better than he was, much as he tried. “Don’t go too far, you’ll find them.”

Everyone else was gone – Lee hoped that they weren’t gone too, though he knew the two of them could take care of themselves if needed.

“They’ll take care of you.” He could feel the emotions weakly burning his stomach – if he had any tears left to shed, Lee would be crying right now.

Clementine started really crying then.

This… This was their goodbye, Lee realized. This was their goodbye, and he hated it.

He didn’t want to leave Clem, didn’t want her growing up without someone really protecting her or teaching everything she would know to survive in this weird ass world. He wanted to be there for her every step of the way…

He didn’t have a choice.

“I’ll miss you, Clem…” She nodded in agreement, wiping her eyes and staring at him, as if memorizing his every feature and flaw. “You’ll be okay.” It was getting too much to keep his eyes open, so he closed them, grateful for the oblivion that greeted him. “I love you, Clem…”

( _Crying, Clem lifted the gun, taking deep breaths to calm herself and steady her hands. She didn’t want to shoot Lee, but she didn’t want him to turn into one of those things outside. One last breath…_

“ _I love you too, Lee.”)_

BANG

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It always frustrated me that Lee just simply didn't tell Clementine that he loved her. Obviously, they had grown into this parent/child relationship that I absolutely loved.
> 
> So basically, this is a fix-it fic, but for something like really something small.
> 
> There might be one or two more (I have one planned for Kenny) for this fandom, but then I'll be moving on to others. I have one planned for the Addams Family, but if you want any specific ones, please tell me!! I'll do my best :)

**Author's Note:**

> I really like doing character introspection - they can be fun and give me a chance to explore different characters and their insight into the world. It's a fun exercise, I encourage everyone to try it!
> 
> So, I have a ton of ideas for this, and this first two-shot one (which was originally only one, but it was getting incredibly long, so I broke it up into two pieces) is going to be the first in a long series of character introspection. I'll be focusing on doing TV and movie characters, simply because that gives me more room to play around and have fun.
> 
> So, next chapter is the absolutely heart-breaking scene :D Who's ready for that? Not me! But I'm writing it anyways!


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